EC clears Google's acquisition of Motorola

14/02/2012

The European Commission (EC) has cleared under the EU Merger Regulation the proposed acquisition of Motorola Mobility - developer of mobile phones and tablets - by Google.

Google made the announcement in August of its intention to acquire Motorola to help them take a further grip in the mobile phone market. Currently it has over 150 million Android devices activated in the world and this could increase markedly with this takeover.

Commission vice president in charge of competition policy Joaquin Almunia said the EC would continue to keep a close eye on the behaviour of all market players in the sector, with particular attention paid to the use of patents.

"We have approved the acquisition of Motorola Mobility by Google because, upon careful examination, this transaction does not itself raise competition issues," he continued.

Motorola recently enforced a patent injunction against Apple, which meant that the manufacturer had to pull its iPads and iPhones from all its German online stores.